Data has become a truly precious resource due to its importance in marketing campaigns as well as product development, and telling data driven visual stories is useful for brands because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up helping them engage with consumers. There are five major trends that are driving an increase in data storytelling, and Visual Capitalist managed to shed some light on them to contextualize their prevalence.
The first of these trends is the abundance of data online. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, this huge quantity of data comes with both pros and cons. For starters, so much data can be overwhelming for consumers since it can create a lot of noise. On the flipside, it provides marketers and brands more opportunities to gain insight, although parsing useful data from less practical information is still a bit of a challenge. Having so much data to sift through might actually be increasing the work that brands have to do.
Another major trend that can be noted in this report is that of an overall mistrust of the media among consumers. Back in 1997, around 53% of Americans felt that they could trust the news that was shown to them on the media, but in spite of the fact that this is the case this percentage has dropped to just 36% in 2021. Around 76% of consumers who participated in this survey stated that they were worried about being fed misinformation from media outlets and therefore did not trust the news they received from them.
The third trend is the winner takes all dynamic that was created by social media platforms. About a century ago, publishing any information and reaching a wide enough audience would have been quite challenging with all things having been considered and taken into account. The New Yorker, one of the most prominent magazines in the world, had a sum total of 1.2 million subscribers. This is a number that low to mid tier content creators can surpass quite easily with all things having been considered and taken into account.
However, while publishers are no longer gatekeepers of content, the algorithm of various platforms such as YouTube are still restricting what content gets a push and what gets tossed aside. Anyone can upload a video to YouTube, but 90% of these videos receive fewer than a thousand views. Less than 1% of all videos end up getting over 100,000 views.
The fourth trend involves a major decline in the value of text. Text based information was the only thing that people could access in the past, but now that there are so many video based platforms consumers are expecting more of a multimedia type of experience. Internet speeds have also increased which facilitates media outlets showing visual content to consumers. Additionally, smartphones have increased their average pixel count by 260% which is further driving the trend of visual based stories that also incorporate some text.
The final trend that was touched on in this report was that of the growing ecosystem that data creators could operate in. Jobs involving data science will increase by 31% over the next decade, and statistician related roles will increase by as much as 35%.
Read next: The World’s Economy Has Suffered A $10B Loss Thanks To Internet Shutdowns In 2022, Claims New Report
The first of these trends is the abundance of data online. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, this huge quantity of data comes with both pros and cons. For starters, so much data can be overwhelming for consumers since it can create a lot of noise. On the flipside, it provides marketers and brands more opportunities to gain insight, although parsing useful data from less practical information is still a bit of a challenge. Having so much data to sift through might actually be increasing the work that brands have to do.
Another major trend that can be noted in this report is that of an overall mistrust of the media among consumers. Back in 1997, around 53% of Americans felt that they could trust the news that was shown to them on the media, but in spite of the fact that this is the case this percentage has dropped to just 36% in 2021. Around 76% of consumers who participated in this survey stated that they were worried about being fed misinformation from media outlets and therefore did not trust the news they received from them.
The third trend is the winner takes all dynamic that was created by social media platforms. About a century ago, publishing any information and reaching a wide enough audience would have been quite challenging with all things having been considered and taken into account. The New Yorker, one of the most prominent magazines in the world, had a sum total of 1.2 million subscribers. This is a number that low to mid tier content creators can surpass quite easily with all things having been considered and taken into account.
However, while publishers are no longer gatekeepers of content, the algorithm of various platforms such as YouTube are still restricting what content gets a push and what gets tossed aside. Anyone can upload a video to YouTube, but 90% of these videos receive fewer than a thousand views. Less than 1% of all videos end up getting over 100,000 views.
The fourth trend involves a major decline in the value of text. Text based information was the only thing that people could access in the past, but now that there are so many video based platforms consumers are expecting more of a multimedia type of experience. Internet speeds have also increased which facilitates media outlets showing visual content to consumers. Additionally, smartphones have increased their average pixel count by 260% which is further driving the trend of visual based stories that also incorporate some text.
The final trend that was touched on in this report was that of the growing ecosystem that data creators could operate in. Jobs involving data science will increase by 31% over the next decade, and statistician related roles will increase by as much as 35%.
Read next: The World’s Economy Has Suffered A $10B Loss Thanks To Internet Shutdowns In 2022, Claims New Report
